Entrepreneur magazine has a list of the best and worst marketing ideas ever. Vegas, Mac, Reese’s Pieces, Tylenol, Nathan’s, Livestrong and Blendtec have some of the best ideas that can translate into lessons for any marketing professional.

Worst idea actually went to America’s Top Guerrilla Marketer (according to FastCompany), Sam Ewan of Interference.

By looking at good and bad pieces of marketing (and reading all that direct mail), you can get a feel for what might work with your audience.

I’m going to Go Local for a couple of posts (like here). Small Business Trends has an article about “the top 5 ways people find local businesses according to Comscore“:

1. 31%  Visit a search engine – most research without a specific brand or business name in mind and a specific location (i.e. a plumber in Tampa, Florida).
2. 30% Look up a business in print in the Yellow Pages or White Pages.
3. 19% Use Internet directories – often to find a phone number.
4. 11% Look at local search sites like Google Maps or Yahoo Local (usually to get driving directions).
5. 3%   Get information from a newspaper or magazine.

What does this tell you? Search counts for 42%. You might want to have a strategy for that.  I find the YP number to be high until you consider that not everyone has a computer (with broadband and powered up all the time).  So you need to start measuring how folks find you. Seriously.

At the December AMA Tampa Bay luncheon, the speaker was Melissa Helms, co-founder of the Pediatric Cancer Foundation and partner in Keep Me In Stitches, talking about Cause Marketing. This has been the break-out year for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Pink ribbon marketing with everyone from M&M’s to Yoplait to Pepperidge Farms.

Helms talked about her Board of Advisors and her customers have helped her. She has made flags for Americans after 9/11. The business has collected food – one can was a 10% discount; 2 pieces was a 20% discount.  The store sells sewing machines, so making quilts for the children hospital is a natural fit. The store donated the space and lunch while customers and employees did the labor.

It is about inspiring and rewarding customers for giving, because everyone wants to feel like they are a part of something. It is about Community, which is really what social media is all about after you get past the technology and Internet parts.And don’t forget to have an Attitude for Gratitude.

Her last question was: What are You Passionate about? Tell that story.